Bridging the Ideal and the Real

McGehee describes that what we deem to be evil and the worst thing that ever happened to us, may be the best thing that ever happened to us and that this autonomous and mysterious God that we must be related to is in charge. We are not. We are however in charge of our responses and to be a person of faith we will live our life boldly, knowing we can begin again and no matter what happens, we can s...

FYI this talk was given the week before the one I posted last week, 9-23-90 so they are out of order. In this talk, McGehee describes the difficulty of being males who learned from their fathers and other men in authority that to be masculine is to compete and defeat other males. The reemergence of the feminine within men is the capacity to be in intimate in relationships with either gender by sha...

Pittman McGehee begins by quoting Carl Jung. “Nature does not care about higher consciousness. Neither does society. Society is only interested in achievement and that for the most part, posthumously. In this talk, he explains the 3 most common rituals that men in our culture use to achieve the task of separating from their personal bond with their Mother. As they strive to form their identities,...

There is power in looking into the darkness as we recognize the parts of us that we repress, collectively and individually especially our cultural obsession with the body and human sexuality. Anything repressed doesn’t go away, it comes out in a distorted form hence perversion and obsession so prevalent around us. He talks about our shadow needing to be loved and how in order to get us to our whol...

Part 1 of a talk given to the Jung Center in San Antonio, Tx on May 15, 1998, McGehee lays the groundwork for ego development as it is the beginning of our becoming conscious human beings. Reframing our failures, our mistakes, even illness and accident, any crisis that leads to suffering is the Self’s way (the God image within) to lead us to greater consciousness. We are accustomed to seeing light...

This Sunday School class talk was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on December 30, 1990. There are five childhood fears that McGehee singles out to describe but the biggest of all is non-being. To understand the remedy for that we graduate into our own self hood, our own containment by leaving Mother behind who convinced us we could not live with out her and finding out no one can do our life for...

This Sunday School class talk was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on December 23, 1990. The prologue of the Gospel of John carries within it the origin of all things —breath that worded us into existence and the doctrine of grace. To be what we were created to be by God who conceived of you and delights in your presence — your authenticity to be.

This Sunday School class talk was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on December 16, 1990. Christmas time can be a joy filled time and a time of despair and depression. Pittman weaves our hopes and fears together and skillfully makes them acceptable so that something more substantial can occur when both are integrated.

This Sunday School class talk was given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on April 17, 1988. This story is about his coach at Oklahoma State University and it is so funny that you will love it. It is as he says his chance at reconciliation and becoming real. 

Using a humorous story about an article about a baseball team, Pittman McGehee tells a tale about the cosmic game of life and how Jesus came along to change the game. This Sunday School class talk was given on September 13, 1987.

The ego has its own value system of what quality of life is for us and an essential part of our ego development is to acquire material things, power to get them and self worth derived from having accumulated matter and time. We all want more time. The problem is our ego thinks it's all that is of our psyche. It gets confused when it believes that the more we can acquire of net worth, the more we c...

This talk is about our human ego and our soul and our imbalanced state that begins by building a lightness and a darkness in order to conform with what is acceptable in our environment and in our society. This leads to a fairly significantly unbalanced view of life. If we ignore the darkness long enough, we’ll become that which we have ignored and there is no other way to become aware without goin...

In this talk, Pittman shares the idea of balance vs integration, coming to a realization that there are some things in our psyche that are just not for us. Attitudes or associations we may have been dealt in our early days by parents, culture, family, etc. and the necessity of embracing that which we most fear. This mp3 is a talk given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 5-15-88 at Christ Church Cathed...

This is a story about the day Pittman’s Father died and the way men live with their ties cutting their bodies and feelings off at the neck. His intimacy at the end with his Father is revealing of the four Fs (feelings, failures, fantasies and fears) that he had a chance to hear before his Dad passed not knowing it would be the last time he saw him. In his Father’s life time, men would seal themsel...

Pittman gives three stories at the beginning and then takes you through a bible story of Pentecost where they begin to understand that the holy spirit doesn’t dwell in heaven but within each human being. The surprise ending is a perfect symbol for each of us. This mp3 is a talk given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 5-22-88 at Christ Church Cathedral Sunday School class in Houston, Texas. 

Pittman begins by describing our need for Mother (matter) being transcribed into material and that although it is important to have our material and physical needs met, it is also not what gives our life meaning. We all run into ruts, hardship and the walls that life brings, when we need someone else to be Christ for us and show us what’s possible. What is the possibility in that divorce, that sic...

Pittman begins with a humorous story from childhood about a dozen baby chickens all colored for Easter that his Father had brought home. Only one survived and grew up to be inferior as it had white feathers with purple tips. The shadow side of us is like that — different, rejected, inferior in some way — embracing this part of us is our our Easter story. Jesus took it all on. He did not deny his h...

Pain is a peculiar human possession. We do not become close truly intimate without pain. Each of us has to take the risk of loving another as there is no wonderful love story without pain which informs us that we are alive. Christianity at it's most basic level integrates the pain as part of the passion. This mp3 is a talk given by J. Pittman McGehee, D.D. on 6-21-87 at Christ Church Cathedra...

Marion Woodman, in her book Addiction to Perfection does a definitive job explaining that our addictions whatever they may be are symbolic of our need for Mother. Our need to reconcile either too much Mother or not enough nurturing from the human being who was our Mother. What matters to us in the beginning is to have our basic human needs met, our physical needs met but the dark side of that is w...

How do we know a piece of art, a song or wisdom or even the taste of water? Can we even know that which we cannot comprehend? How would I know what you know. Pittman describes the two bookends of knowing God. One is the anthropomorphic God who hears, who walks and talks like a human being which is simplistic on one bookend and on the other bookend of the teeter totter of our life is a God of nothi...

Pittman begins with the sadness he felt when he received notice of a friend/hero who had died when he happens upon a tv lecture by a female doctor about the endocrine system and male testosterone. As men, it is our transcendence and goodness, our imago dei which is even more than can be captured in any moment of time. On Father’s Day Pittman experiences three separate conversations; his 10 year ol...

Pittman begins by telling the story of hearing that Jesus was riding in to Calgary on an ASS and how that made him laugh as a young boy who was hearing it in a church of all places. Life is filled with ironic and humorous comedy when we don’t take it so seriously it can sustain us in times that we are going through tragedy that is unexplainable. He talks about the unconditional love of God for us...

Human nature says everyone will have a different sexuality — a personality and mystery of it's own. In this talk, Pittman defines Gods gifts of sexuality 1) procreation 2) to experience union (with another and with God) and the responsibilities of bringing another human being into the world. We have a higher calling when it comes to sexual union because when we love one another, we love God also....

The nature of human beings is to be religious and Pittman gives two etymological descriptions of the word religion — to bind back which presumes something is broken and to tie up as in the mooring of a boat (or an anchor). Christianity does not offer any of us safety as it rains on the just and the unjust but it offers us a way to see and listen to something we haven't seen before and grow.  ...

Pittman tells a poignant story of a childhood experience of the fear based preaching of an Evangelist and a high school friend who had the integrity to not let it affect his choices. The healing he experienced through his parents unconditional love gave him a foundation of a God who loves us all unconditionally, even in our imperfection. And regardless of his disagreement with that kind of hostile...